Thursday, March 3, 2016

The Inland Northwest is in the throes of Inlander Restaurant Week for another few days — you can find all the necessary info here — and our staffers are out on the scene doing a little grubbing themselves:

At Timber, a recently opened gastropub in Post Falls, a mural of old-time loggers reclining on some felled trees watch diners in the recently renovated space.

For Inlander Restaurant Week, I started with the soft pretzels, small submarines of doughy goodness that I submerged into the accompanying IPA beer cheese sauce. Next up was Pacific cod, cooked in a rice cracker crust. The fish was OK (I mean has anyone ever uttered, "Omergod! That was amazing!" about cod. Probably not). The real star of the dish was the red curry with edamame jasmine rice. Dessert was coffee mud pie, which was as sweet, gooey and chocolatey as you would imagine.

But maybe what stood out about the meal (and not included with Restaurant Week, but worth an addition) was the “flight in a pint,” a paddle board of tasters made from nearby brewers followed with a pint of your favorite.

I live on the north side of Spokane, so a trip to Luna is a bit of an excursion, making Inlander Restaurant Week a perfect excuse to make my way to the South Hill and treat myself.

The options for Restaurant Week were all pretty tempting. I like to put my hard-earned dollars toward meat — usually as much as possible, and at the very least a kind of meat I don't know how to cook at home. That led me to choose the Braised Short Rib, served with a broccoli puree, white beans and carrot. The beef was tender, falling apart easily with just a fork, and the veggies were done very well. That didn't keep me from spearing some of the fettucini and lamb ragout served with cauliflower, kalamata olives and tomato on my girlfriend's plate, though, and I can definitely recommend that as well.

For dessert, we both had the Exotic Citrus Vacherin. Don't know what Vacherin is? Us, either, but I can report that the collection of blood oranges, candied grapefruit and kumquats and cinnamon topped with pistachio ice cream has us both licking the bowls. OK, not really, we're not animals. But it was good.

Even better, though, was our choice for an appetizer. We bypassed the Old Fashioned cocktail — that was a painful choice to make, believe me — and got the salmon lox, served with a little cream cheese, golden raisins and watercress. For something so simple, it was incredibly tasty.

This was just my second-ever visit to Luna, and first in a couple years, and between the neighborhood cafe vibe and great service, I can see why it's a Spokane favorite.